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Deeplinks Blog posts about Free Speech

pseu·do·nym
[sood-n-im]
–noun a fictitious name used by an author to conceal his or her identity; pen name.

There are myriad reasons why individuals may wish to use a name other than the one they were born with. They may be concerned about threats to their lives or livelihoods, or they may risk political or economic retribution. They may wish to prevent discrimination or they may use a name that’s easier to pronounce or spell in a given culture.

Online, the reasons multiply. Internet culture has long encouraged the use of "handles" or "user names," pseudonyms that may or may not be tied to a person’s offline identity. Longtime online inhabitants may have handles that have spanned over twenty years.

This week saw two disappointing decisions by two major American companies, Microsoft and Cisco, that appear to be choosing to become little tech helpers to China's repressive regime rather than choosing to be a force for good. For Cisco, it's more of the same. For Microsoft, it's a disappointing turn.

EFF and five news organizations recently filed an amicus brief (pdf) urging an Indiana appeals court to block a subpoena seeking to expose the identity of an anonymous speaker who posted a comment on the Indianapolis Star's website. This is a case of first impression in Indiana.

The subpoena stems from an underlying lawsuit filed by the former head of Junior Achievement of Central Indiana, a non-profit whose mission is to teach children about business management and finance. Among other things, Jeffrey Miller alleges that Junior Achievement and two of its high-level officers defamed him by claiming that he misappropriated money from the organization.

Longtime readers will remember the WIPO Broadcasting Treaty, which EFF has opposed since 2004 because it would harm consumers, citizen journalists, the free flow of information on the Internet, and innovation. Since 2006, EFF and a broad coalition [PDF] of public interest groups, libraries, creative industry members, telecommunications and technology companies have been explaining how granting broadcasters and cablecasters the intellectual property rights envisaged by the draft Treaty would wreak havoc on the Internet community.

With protests raging throughout the country, the Syrian government is responding with deadly force. Citizens seeking freedom are relying on digital tools to organize and communicate -- so much so that the government temporarily shut off Internet access. The parallels to the Iranian uprising in 2009 are striking, and they are not lost on the Obama Administration. In fact, President Obama explicitly linked the current Syrian situation with the Iranian uprisings of 2009, noting that “Syria has followed its Iranian ally” in violently responding to peaceful protests. “The image of a young woman dying in the streets is still seared in our memory,” he recalled, referring to the YouTube video of 26-year-old Neda Agha-Soltan dying from a gunshot wound in Tehran.